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Train to Nowhere

One Woman's World War II, Ambulance Driver, Reporter, Liberator

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Pub Date Aug 24 2017 | Archive Date Jan 31 2018

Bloomsbury USA | Bloomsbury Caravel


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Description

A World War II memoir following the adventures of a female ambulance driver in WWII as she serves across four fronts witnesses the best and worst of humanity, and navigates the barriers imposed by sexism in the British Army.

Train to Nowhere is a war memoir seen through the sardonic eyes of Anita Leslie, a funny and vivacious young woman who reports on her experiences with a dry humor, finding the absurd alongside the tragic.

Daughter of a Baronet and first cousin once removed of Winston Churchill, she joined the Mechanized Transport Corps as a fully trained mechanic and ambulance driver during WWII, serving in Libya, Syria, Palestine, Italy, France, and Germany. Ahead of her time, Anita bemoans ‘first-rate women subordinate to second-rate men,’ and, as the English army forbade women from serving at the front, joined the Free French Forces in order to do what she felt was her duty.

Writing letters in Hitler’s recently vacated office and marching in the Victory parade contrast with observations of seeing friends murdered and a mother avenging her son by coldly shooting a prisoner of war. Unflinching and unsentimental, Train to Nowhere is a memoir of Anita’s war, one that, long after it was written, remains poignant and relevant.

With a new introduction by Penny Perrick.

Anita Leslie (1914–1985), daughter of Shane Leslie (Sir John Randolph Leslie, 3rd Baronet) and first cousin once removed of Sir Winston Churchill, was a writer of memoir and biography. She joined the Mechanised Transport Corps as a fully trained mechanic and ambulance driver during WWII, serving in Libya, Syria, Palestine, Italy, France and Germany. She wrote letters home from Hitler's office in the Reich Chancellery and took part in the Victory parade in Berlin. In the latter part of the war she drove an ambulance for the Free French Forces, and was awarded the Croix de Guerre in 1945 by General Charles de Gaulle.

Leslie later married Commander Bill King and had two children. She published seventeen books, the last in 1985 – the year she died.

A World War II memoir following the adventures of a female ambulance driver in WWII as she serves across four fronts witnesses the best and worst of humanity, and navigates the barriers imposed by...


Available Editions

EDITION Ebook
ISBN 9781448216673
PRICE $15.00 (USD)

Average rating from 4 members